Research Time: Habitat, Women & Housing

Women's Build Research Team!

            In the time-span of two months, I’ve accumulated well over 100 e-mails which includes something along the lines of ‘Women’s Build’ in it. I have a heightened level of respect for people who’s daily work is logistic centered, as it is time-consuming, requires a lot of patience, and willingness to make multiple corrections to ‘final versions’ of things. All to make sure things run as smoothly as possible. I was in charge of facilitating most of the logistics pertaining to the research and this was a broad range of things. I ended up doing budgeting—detail all our expenses for the trip, finalizing copies of our research agenda to send to government officials and collecting base-line data from some of our staff at our offices across the country.  For a lot of the logistics work, I could not hesitate to ask for help because of the language barrier. I don’t know how I would have gotten everything done without willing, helpful hands. I felt in over my head at several points, but had to remind myself to do the best I could and when in doubt to ask for help.

            After my passport forgetting fiasco, I was able to join the team in ‘conducting’ research.  ‘Conducting’ research was quite interesting as we had 7 local authorities accompany us everywhere we went. Foreigners are not allowed to conduct research in Vietnam without government approval. This includes providing them with the rationale for the research, a research agenda/protocol detailing where you will visit and the exact times, as well as how many people will be coming to do the research. We were only expecting 1 authority—two at most, but were really surprised that this much came. Only the head researcher from the US, a local translator and government officials were allowed to enter the room, which made for an interesting dynamic.  While waiting for the interviews to be completed—anywhere between 30 minutes to 1 hour, we sat, wherever we could. My Tho was so much hotter than the city, so finding shelter from the sun was a priority.

Most of the places we sat and waited were at people's homes: This was my favourite!

            During the waiting time, my supervisor suggested I interviewed the female local authorities to get their opinions on the work and how its been helping women. I had no questions written down, but thanks to learning so much about the projects before arriving, I was able to think of good questions to ask! I definitely had a social worker ‘thrill’ moment, and had to try really hard to mask my excitement about such hands on experience. We sat mostly on the ground or on stools, so this made things feel less formal, and one of my co-workers translated for me. When I had asked all of my questions pertaining to the projects, I put into practice something I observed while assisting Professor Delaney- a dear professor from undergrad, with research in East Timor. At the end of every interview, Professor Delaney would make it a point to ask whoever she interviewed—whether a single individual or a community of 50 people, if they had any questions for and about her. People’s faces would lit up at this offer! We often rush to get information from people for the sake of research, without even given them the option of having a glimpse into our reality. 

          Reminded of this, I asked the two women I had interviewed if they had any questions for me, about me, to which they smiled and then responded with several questions! Where are you from? Barbados—Where is that? How old are you? Are you married? What are you studying? By the end of our exchange; through asking more questions, I got to learn about how they got into this field of work, where they were from in Vietnam, and about their families. I also received the translation: ‘They say you tell you: You are cute!’ to which I responded ‘Cam on!’ (Thank you!); received big smiles and the both literally started to pinch my cheeks! AKWARD and FUNNY?= YES! As much as I HATE having my larger-than life cheeks being pulled at, I was glad that it served to ‘break the ice’, as we were all laughing by the end of it. Later that week, the government officials gave us rides to the remote places. I received a ride from one of the female authorities who had a black and white polka-dot motorcycle helmet. One day she showed up in a shirt that matched it perfectly!

Rice Paddies & the ever-stylish local authority who gave me rides to interviewees' homes

            Although I wish I could hear firsthand the women’s experiences, I still got a lot out of the experience! I got to see the full houses and house repairs Habitat has done over the years. We went to about 15 of them, and each neighborhood or ‘hem’—alleyway, was different. 

Scenes from the neighbourhoods:
 The first two pictures at the top and the house at the bottom right are examples of  Habitat full houses

            The contrast between extreme poverty and increasing wealth was evident in the range of homes. Sometimes, side-by side or across the way, you’d find a low-income or  a near or fully dilapidated home, opposite a house of epic proportions considering the surroundings.  The physical locations also varied considerably. One was down a narrow--and noisy, alleyway at a home that faced an outdoor market. Another was more remote and we had to take a motorcycle to get there, which provided us with a view of the bluest of skies and lush green fields of rice.  

These two homes were side-by side: The 1st is a repair by Habitat and across the street was this huge house

            My Tho was so different in pace, size and economic status from Ho Chi Minh City—at least what I’ve seen of it. Nestled around the Mekong Delta, instead of the continuous buzz of motorcycles and traffic and skyscrapers, modestly sized buildings and daring structures on stilts were found. I could see the sun setting clearly and the air was full of sounds of boats of various sizes, chugging through the water, and people carrying on selling an array of trades.

Sights from My Tho